digital asset management [Archive] - Large Format Photography Forum

Rob Champagne

7-May-2008, 05:36

I'm looking for a digital photo asset management tool for organising photos from lots of different landscaping projects. It would need to be able to take exif/iptc data from the camera and store the data/photos by project and also project type. Also needs to be able to assign lots of tags to photos so that searches would produce a portfolio of images that were stored with those tags. Also useful if it can be run over a network so that all people in an office can add/edit images from a server.

Does adobe bridge do this or lightroom or are there better alternatives?

thanks

phototech

7-May-2008, 08:05

I would also recommend Extensis Portfolio(EP). I also like Adobe Lightroom(LR), however I use this more for specific projects. LR is a great program for importing, editing, and tagging images. Think of it as darkroom tool.
Extensis has many advantages over LR, namely file types. If you get into the habit of only populating the EP catalog with "finished" assets, it is highly customizable in so far as grouping, searching, and organizing data. In addition, future data migration to new platforms is possible. AL will not import or catalog hi-end digital back RAW files, video, audio, or most importantly (at least for me) cmyk files. Some files may also be too large for LR to handle and you will get an import error. EP will handle anything you through into it, making it a true DAM app. You never want to find yourself in a corner with regards to DAM. EP is very customizable and is very migration friendly. You never know...you may one day shoot some video or record some audio.
Almost more important than the DAM app, I would suggest (if you havent already) coming up with a solid/consistent file naming convention. I like to include a unique identifier (name or number), file type designator (RAW, master, access, cmyk), and the date it was shot. For example, I would name a file: cityhall_m01_20080507.tif. But that may be way to anal for some folks. What this does though is allows me to shoot an infinite number of shots of cityhall and create some inherent searchability. Just remember to keep it to 32 characters or below to maintain the iso standard.
Sorry for the lengthy reply.

Scott